A cracker of a start to the day - literally! Broke my right middle toe as I tried to avoid Cody in the hallway by smacking my foot on the corner - ouch BUT… the show must go on!

We dragged the kids out the door at 6:30am to hit the road. We struck a hyperactive valet who had our car out in a flash, its criminal to have that much energy at that hour of the morning! Great service though

No traffic issues at all, although there was an accident and traffic piled up for quite a distance going the other direction on the freeway. We arrived in Haleiwa at 7:30am, an hour before we needed to check in - 'cos thats how we roll! We filled in time by checking out the morning surfers at Haleiwa Beach, and got a fairly decent coffee from Coffee Brewers in the Haleiwa Marketplace.

We checked in along with the other 15 people booked for our trip with North Shore Shark Adventures. A quick safety briefing then we headed out 3 miles offshore to where the shark cage was located. The 8am tour group were just finishing up, so we were able to watch the action and spot some sharks in the water. All of the sharks in the area were Galapagos sharks, fairly inquisitive creatures but certainly not maneaters by nature or reputation. Some ranged between 9-12 feet long though! Over the past 40-50 years of shrimp fishing off Haleiwa the sharks have become accustomed to the sound and vibrations of the boats, and the 'rubbish' that they discard from their catches, so they're conditioned to hang around the area for a few scraps.

Chay and I were in the second of three groups to go in the cage, each for about 20min. I'd read some reviews on Trip Advisor where people felt that wasn't long enough - trust me, its long enough to get some great photos and experience being in the water with sharks. There were heaps around, it was really cool and not scary at all. One guy in our group got sick right before he went in the water and again as we were getting out, but none of us felt sick thanks to a dose of Dramamine well before we got there. Actually the biggest challenge was avoiding the couple beside us who kept floating horizontal rather than vertical, we copped a few kicks!

We got HEAPS of good photos and some video on the GoPro, which we can also extract stills from. We think Chay might have bumped the GoPro a little as a lot of the video was aimed a little high. Still some good stuff on there though! The boys were fine with staying on the boat, no way would Cody have gone in the water. They were a bit tired and grumpy from four early starts in a row anyway.

We got back to the harbour a little before 11am, stopped at Matsumoto's Grocery Store for one of their 'world famous shave ices' and a couple of souvenir t-shirts. The shave ices are pretty darn good, not TOO sweet as some of the previous ones we've had have been, although not as finely shaved as I had been told they were by the many recommendations. I lost the top of mine in a shave ice accident, but the pretty rainbow colours splattered all over the pavement were lovely and worthy of a photo or two. Back on the road we headed further up the North Shore towards Waimea and the beaches where the really massive waves come in through the winter. No massive waves for us to see as its only autumn (or fall), but still packs of surfers hanging around in the water waiting for the best offerings from the Surf Gods.

Lunch at Ted's Bakery (which was really dessert for Chay and I with choc coconut cream pie and pineapple macadamia cheesecake, mmm!) and then the main course a bit further up the road at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck - really really good :) I had the scampi (garlic!) and Chay had the hot and spicy. The kids had eaten earlier at Ted's Bakery so it was a perfect opportunity for us to have something they're not interested in

We made a few random photo stops on our journey back towards Waikiki, but tired and grumpy kids made the afternoon a bit 'unpleasant', so we skipped most of the beach parks. We stopped at Sandy Beach, really nice with its golden sands and surfers galore. We were parked next to a guy with a super cute 6 month old dachshund puppy, who of course enjoyed licking Leo all over. There was a large seal sunning itself on the beach, cordoned off by officials to prevent stupid people approaching it. 'Seal' was more than happy to pose for photos though

We've driven almost all the way around Oahu, we skipped the West Side as that would have meant a lot of back tracking, and there is mainly more beaches and we figured we'd had our fill. We even skipped Diamond Head in favour of getting Mr Cranky Pants and Mr Silent Teenage Attitude back to our hotel sooner!

We took a wrong turn off the freeway but found a Foodland supermarket so all was not lost. A quick top up of our supplies, back to the Ilikai to unload everything, and Chay returned the car to the rental place over the road.

Usual routine of a dip in the pool, salads and a movie to round out the long tiring day. Definitely a sleep in coming up, its LAZY TUESDAY!!

(Oh and a massive THANK YOU to our extended family who chipped in to give us the shark tour experience as birthday presents to both Chay and I - although we're still wondering if you guys are trying to tell us something by feeding us to the sharks??!! Love you all anyway <3 )